The current providers of wireless communication and cellular telephone products are constantly developing new equipment and related services. As these wireless communication advancements become more and more demanding on the functional capabilities of the mobile communication equipment, the relative cost of these portable devices continue to rise while consumers attempt to keep up with the latest available technology.
The number of cellular telephone network systems available today places a heavy financial burden on consumers who attempt to maintain state of the art services and equipment. In general, mobile telephones throughout different countries of the world operate on different wireless network systems or standards which may be broadly divided into either analog or digital systems. Examples of well established analog systems include AMPS, which is used primarily in the United States and Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and Asian-Pacific countries. Other types of analog type networks include ETACS and NMT which are used throughout Europe, Russia, and Asian-Pacific countries. Meanwhile, the recent advent of digital technology in wireless communications has naturally spawned its own set of digital wireless systems across the globe. Global Standard for Mobile communications (GSM), for example, is heavily used in Asian-Pacific countries, and is considered by many to be the digital standard of Europe. Other common digital systems include DCS 1800 which is used in many different countries. PCS-1900 and D-AMPS are other digital systems used to some extent in the United States, Canada, and a variety of Asian-Pacific countries. Additional digital systems include North American Digital Cellular (NADC), Personal Handy System, and Digital European Cordless Telephone (DECT). While digital network systems are relatively new in comparison to their analog counterpart, it is widely acknowledged that digital systems will continue to provide more cellular telephone features and improved transmission security. Today, new wireless communications systems and protocols are continually emerging as additional providers enter the market and attempt to establish still more purported standards.
There are several new wireless technologies, in particular, that are slowly emerging but not widely available or accepted yet in many countries. Personal Communication Systems (PCS) are currently in high demand, as well as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, and the Omnipoint system which is now used in the eastern region of the United States. As these systems become more accepted and accessible, consumers will migrate from older systems using wireless standards such as AMPS or NADC to these newly developed technologies. Unfortunately, migrating to a new system with present wireless telephone technologies often requires the purchase of a new telephone unit. Because wireless telephones today are designed for use with a specific system, they often can not be used with other systems. For example, a telephone designed for a NADC network system cannot be used with a GSM network system. Each wireless network system has its own designated frequencies and protocols, and the supporting electronics contained within these wireless telephones are generally designed to work only within these specified parameters.
Within each particular network system, a wireless standard is established which may be generally defined as a specification for the manufacturing and operation of wireless components within the system such as the base stations, handsets, and switches. A wireless standard may further specify specific rules and protocols such as how a wireless telephone communicates with a base station, how a base station relays signals to another base station, and what types of signals are to be used.
Most countries designate different frequencies for their subscribers within a particular type of cellular telephone network system. The particular wireless standard within each system typically allows different implementations of the standard including variations within a carrier frequency range. Multiple implementations of the standard often require different handsets since each of these implementations practically represent another wireless system or subsystem. The frequencies used by different wireless systems may vary between approximately 900 MHz to 2.1 GHz or more. For cellular telephones operating in the 900 MHz range, wireless chipsets may be ordinarily formed of silicon. But with respect to devices that operate within the 2.1 GHz range, different materials such as GaAs is often required. Even different chip process technologies are therefore used in telephones built for different systems. In fact, the same wireless network system may include multiple implementations or subsystems of a wireless standard which require different cellular telephone handsets. For example, even if the GSM standard is adopted in many continents, each region of the world essentially implements a different wireless system because the frequency range within each system is different. On the other hand, there are a few localized systems such as the AMPS system which is consistently implemented across the United States so that the wireless system and the wireless standard are mutually coextensive. In those instances where there is no deviation from the specification of a wireless standard, or if there is only one implementation in effect, the wireless system effectively becomes the same as the wireless standard.
The widespread lack of uniformity among wireless systems today continues as new cellular telephones are introduced. However, most of these wireless units may be conceptually divided into two basic sections. One section may contain most of the basic electronics that support a particular wireless communication system, and may be referred to as internal electronics. The other section may contain remaining wireless telephone components such as a display, speaker, microphone, keypad, battery, and may be referred to as external componentry. The internal electronics generally contain the specific components for operation with a particular wireless system. Today, there exists at least two industry cost trends that relate to the internal and external componentry of a wireless telephone. The first trend involves the change in relative costs of the two sections. The cost of the internal electronics has been dropping significantly. Simpler wireless chipsets are reducing design costs, and high volume production provides more economical computer chips. The cost of the external components, however, are not dropping as fast for various reasons such as the maturity of external component technologies and the demand for increased complexity in external components. As this trend progresses, the external componentry may constitute a larger percentage of the wireless telephone cost. The second trend which has been observed is directed to the increase in the total cost of wireless telephones. Advanced wireless telephones in the future will most likely incorporate more expensive components such as color active matrix displays, advanced microprocessors, high capacity memory devices, Internet access and electronic e-mail systems, and improved casing and component materials. The majority of this increased cost may be attributed to the external componentry of the wireless telephone. This cost trend will tend to further increase the comparative cost of the external componentry in relation to the cost of the internal electronics. Unlike the decreasing cost of the internal electronics, the cost of the external componentry in advanced wireless telephones is most likely to increase. The wireless communication and cellular telephone industry is not prepared to accommodate the increasing cost of new wireless telephones and the ever increasing number of wireless network systems.
The wireless communication and cellular telephone industry is also experiencing simultaneous growth in the range of available network services and features. A wireless telephone feature may be essentially considered a desired capability of the handset unit that is not critical to its basic operation such as caller ID, last number recall, fast dial, text messaging, voice message recording, signal strength indicator, and telephone number and information storage. The total collection of features for a particular wireless telephone and network system may be referred to as a featureset. In order to prolong the useful life of a wireless telephone, consumers should be able to change the featureset of a wireless telephone as new features become available. Otherwise, the telephone may become obsolete in a relatively short period of time for its lack of up-to-date features and capabilities. The lack of expandable featuresets remains an issue that has been remotely addressed by the industry at best. Some wireless digital telephones today may include reserved locations within a menu user-interface for currently unavailable services. When new features are subsequently implemented in the system, these anticipated functions may be already supported by the telephone handset when activated. The manufacturer must of course face the formidable task of constantly anticipating each possible feature in the future, and reserving sufficient space for these features in the user-interface menu. These prospective features also cause early confusion among consumers when features in their menu are visible but non-functional.
In most respects, most cellular telephones available today may be characterized as inflexible due to their inability to support multiple wireless systems or simple telephone featureset upgrades. Today, wireless telephones have a limited or a relatively unexpanded featureset. A wireless telephone is typically designed with a particular fixed or limited range of features. In order to obtain more features beyond the capabilities of the handset, another wireless telephone must usually be purchased. For example, a subscriber may purchase a current model wireless telephone that is able to store telephone numbers as well as automatically initiate outgoing calls. A new wireless telephone may be introduced the following year with a previously unavailable feature that may include an alphanumeric keypad to allow a user to store and access names, addresses, and telephone numbers, in the telephone. With current wireless telephones, the user will most likely need to purchase a completely new telephone in order to obtain this feature or any other features in the future. While purchasing another wireless telephone for a new featureset or a different network system may be an acceptable practice now because basic wireless telephones are relatively inexpensive, there will be a much a larger cost involved in the future as the overall cost of more advanced wireless telephones continue to rise. For instance, when a subscriber purchases a $2000 wireless telephone for a NADC system, it will cost substantially the same amount to replace the wireless telephone when switching to another system such as the CDMA system. Consumers are becoming increasingly mobile, particularly in the business setting, and the likelihood or demand for switching wireless telephone systems is extremely high. This restriction effectively places a price limit on how much a wireless telephone manufacturer may charge for a telephone since many consumers may not purchase an expensive wireless telephone if it will have to replaced when changing or upgrading to a different system or featureset in the near future. Although a relatively expensive wireless telephone may be very useful and offer the most current features available, its sales may be very limited because of consumer fear of obsolescence. For those individuals who travel within the global community, and elect to purchase multiple wireless telephones, significant inconveniences may further arise. Because users generally store important telephone numbers and information in a particular telephone, using multiple telephones for each system would be extremely inconvenient. For example, the use of different equipment typically involves a new user-interface that must be learned by the subscriber for each telephone. All information would also have to be re-entered into multiple telephones or synchronized for consistent and current information in each unit.
As explained above, new equipment is often purchased for service upgrades or migration to another wireless system. The idea of buying new telephones provides a relatively simple and feasible solution for many current customers who desire featureset upgrades or service within a different system. Wireless telephones are relatively inexpensive today, and are often offered at a minimal cost when subscribing for a new service. But the repeated purchase of new equipment will not be practical for customers who desire state of the art equipment as the cost for high performance cellular telephone equipment continues to rise. It may be possible to imbed necessary components to support more than one wireless system in a telephone handset. For example, dual-mode telephones have been designed for cellular services that use two standards such as NADC and AMPS because the coverage of the digital systems may still be inadequate. Users may need to occasionally access an alternate network system such as AMPS in certain areas. However, these telephones cannot support systems other than the limited number of systems for which they were originally designed. For example, a NADC/AMPS dual-mode telephone cannot be used in Europe because it is incompatible with GSM systems. A user would be required to use another telephone capable of working with yet another network system. A wireless telephone designed for every presently known wireless system in use today would be prohibitively large and extremely expensive. In any event, the unit would still be incompatible with available systems that will be undoubtedly developed in the future.
Another example of previous systems with relatively expensive external componentry includes a laptop computer and cellular telephone that operate in turn with the same Type III PC Card. The card was configured in a limited manner for the selected operation of either the cellular telephone handset or computer. This card also included an extra level of complexity requiring attachments such as an earpiece and corresponding handset jack, protruding components that were unsightly and flimsy, and relatively complicated user interfaces. The Type III PC card was also limited to the AMPS wireless system or protocol, and provided a rigid or fixed feature-set built into the telephone that could not be replaced or upgraded. Moreover, the PC card could only operate with a particular cellular telephone handset and a compatible laptop computer in an attempt to reduce the cost or need for common wireless components included in each product. In particular, the PC card could be either used in the laptop to support AMPS data communications, or in the telephone for AMPS voice communications. This Type III PC card was not designed for other wireless systems, and only included components that were specific to the AMPS system. As with other devices described above, this expensive computer and handset system was only briefly introduced, and provided a relatively inflexible wireless product for use with only a certain wireless standard and a restricted range of features. The continuous lack of flexibility in current wireless communication systems and services provide consumers with no reasonable or cost-effective alternatives in maintaining equipment for extended periods of time.